Making Peace with Your Past

I was not fond of High School and managed to leave after 11th grade by being an exchange student my senior year. (only course I had to take was English; I was told in Sweden I’d be given an A if I didn’t come to class and taint the proper English being taught!)

I was glad to be done with High School. I was tall, skinny, awkward, and mouthy. (I’m still many of those things! Praise be!) I had no idea who I was or what I wanted to do — besides of course fit in. And in that I was not alone. An entire class of kids, just wanting to fit in. Oh, how fragile we were.

I come from a small town. A lot of people left. A lot of people didn’t. There’s a lot we don’t have in common — including our memories. All that was filtered through our own particular set of demons.

But last night was our (how did this happen?) 45th reunion. There weren’t a lot of us, but there were some. And there was laughter and kindness. Tonight there will be more.

And all those times I felt insecure? These days I pretty much like who I am… and love what I do… and mostly I like the people I went to school with as mixed a bunch as we are. And the guy I might be thought to have the least in common with is someone I went to school with from K-12… and we just flat out like and enjoy one another.

There has to be a way to make growing up easier! Ways to help kids just be present to what is and to be kind to one another starting early. In the meantime, Peace on the high school years. And hurrah for people having lives, and lovingly, laughingly shaking our heads over yesteryear. Peace, now. And thanks for a nice evening.

A Thunder Moon Sabbath to Remember

The Thunder Moon is really rattling. Every day it seems, we have a thunder boomer.

And last night the sweetest rain to sleep by. zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Today is Father’s Day… may your memories be sweet and may you make new ones as sweet and juicy as this season’s berries.

Today’s the solstice, giving us a whole sweep of bright and shiny days with long hours of sun (over 15!) well, sun behind the clouds, because that’s what’s going on here! May we be illuminated… May we use the light to look clearly at what is going on in our world. May the beauty we see empower us and keep us strong in the face of the work to be done.

And there’s a lot of work to be done.

Today in my valley we will commemorate the nine who died in Charleston. We will pause and weep. We will decide what if anything we’re going to do to make a difference here. Or at least have a start at it. Let us remember those who died for no reason other than hatred. Our family has lost children. It’s awful. I can’t imagine losing children — or anyone — simply because they existed. To have them targeted and executed. Assassinated. May we be moved to act against the hate — and act in ways that make a difference.

Peace was never more urgent; never more confusing. Let us Peace.

Sweet Reminders of Peace Possible!

The weekend was so incredibly tense so it was just lovely to have a sweet day of community!

No issues to work, no big thoughts to have. The hardest decisions to make were not even whether I should test everything but rather whether I should try something again! Big decisions about whether I should just stand in the splash from the Skloosh, or whether i should get on the silly ride (I did! I did!) Oh, we give thanks for the bounty of food and the abundance of beloved, laughing community!

Four different traditions. All under a yellow and white stripped tent making merry. Life at its summer sweetest. And lots of pictures to remind us we were making sweet memories

And today? I’m going to find some more strawberries on this last day of the Berry Moon. From the way the next moon’s getting off to a start, it sounds as if I should choose Thunder moon. Apparently there were big storms last night, i confess I didn’t hear them. My basement isn’t a swimming pool however, so how bad could they have been?

But today, my dears, I wish you the quiet Peace that comes of great gatherings with good friends — the last sweet remnants of Strawberry Peace and the startling beginnings of Thunder Peace. wow? do we think it’s time to make a stir?

Patchwork Souls for Peace

Some of us, and I think it’s more of a what is thing than a good or bad thing, have what I think of as patchwork souls. We have walked many paths, sat in many kitchens drinking tea or beer or whatever the local brew is, talked in many languages, whether they were of a nation or a clan…

And there is for us, particularly as we begin to understand it, a great joy.

However, it also means that there are paths and kitchens and languages that are lost or abandoned. And then there are pockets of remembered joy, sealed perhaps with some scar tissue of grief. Because there are some places, for so many reasons, to which you can never return.

I do think it helps us, as we come to the Peace-making process, to understand how many different hearts with their own languages of Love need to be engaged and how much space needs to be made for different approaches… May we be Peace and Possibility.

Peace and Honor in the Berry Moon

I guess I should look at the clock. Apparently it happened at 10:30… but whenever it happened, I went and stood.

We must allow ourselves to be moved by those who made that sacrifice, whatever our longing for Peace.

In their honor, we must do two things, I believe.

We must stand for Peace. We must look for new ways to deal with our world. Because hatred and fear are getting us no where. Technology makes our world smaller and smaller. But posturing politicians try to keep us in the same hateful cycles. We’re the ones who are going to have to break that. We’re going to have to reach out our hands to meet other hands reaching out. We’re going to have to push Peace up the pipeline.

And oh, my goodness, we must work for benefits for our soldiers. We love dead soldiers the way we love dead women. It’s the live ones that are problematic. (ooh, here’s tomorrow’s poem!) But too many of our soldiers are homeless and have health issues, both mental and physical that are inadequately treated. If we love our country, we must love these men and now increasing number of women.

Let our sad memories bear the fruits of peace under this beautiful Berry Moon… let us make memories for soldiers that are worthy of the sacrifice. It doesn’t matter where you enter in… but these young men and women dead and alive deserve our support… and our world deserves Peace.

Summer Memories, Sabbath Peace, Berry Moon

It’s a positively beautiful day.

It’s a day for breathing in the Beauty and all the promise and possibility in the beginning of this Berry Moon Season. Strawberries, soon! Swimming, soon! Memories abounding. New possibilities ahead.

It’s the Sabbath and a day for reflection. Today among other things, I’ll be remembering an old family friend. Part of my parents’ crowd… fewer and fewer beloved elders. (as I become one despite my shock and surprise!). Jack. loved steam engines. Did the best corn on the cob. Funny, corny jokes. could fix anything. His wife and my mom shared a birthday on December 24, so we always lunched together that day. Making family every way we could.

Hope your day is grand. Hope you find some sweet Summer Peace to indulge in and some memories to make. Sweet blessings of the Berry Moon be with you…

On Bringing the Peace You Can

It’s really about presence and showing up, isn’t it? And doing the best you can.

You seek to say the things you know will bring them comfort. You work to be as grounded as you can be, as open-hearted, open-souled… open minded, because even here, where it’s about the very stuff of life, there’s so much that’s going on around and as part of it… as you can be.

Even when you have spiritual comfort to offer, it’s often your ability to be comfortable where you are, to be with friends and strangers alike, to let people know they are seen and in the deepest sense of the word, loved.

It’s such a privilege to do this sacred work… and you bump along, sometimes doing it better than others. Doing your best… and showing up. Hoping you can help this family in the midst of what is so hard, hoping there can be Peace and dignity… hoping that you’re helping to create a memory they will always grieve but maybe not regret the way it went.

I knew and liked the woman who died yesterday. It was a hard death for her. She labored to let go. Don’t let ’em fool you, death, is rarely easy. I knew her husband a little, enough that he trusted me. and the same with her mother. Her poor daughter, poor sweet Katy, I had seen only as a baby. This woman was never as proud of anything in her life as of her daughter and of being Katy’s mom.

But there you are struggling for your own grounding in the midst of people you know and those you don’t at the doorway of something huge. Life-not-this-Life.

I believe Peace really lies in open hands and open hearts. I believe it also lies in Presence. And so, I’ll keep trying to show up. I’m grateful to be called and give thanks when i can be of service. And it’s hard work.

Blessings, Peace, Love.

Kids are OK in Flower Moon!

Oh, it was such a sweet morning and the kids were amazing.

I’ve never spent a lot of time with kids. Don’t have my own, lived across the country from too many of the kids in the family when they were growing up. Always had friends around who had kids they’d share and there was always the neighborhood… But direct kid interface, not so much.

And now, boom, i’m the minister at a small town church and we got kids! 100 members: 50 kids. My colleague Sara who does the education piece is fabulous. No other word. Fabulous. The people who teach with her? Fabulous. So I get all the bennies of watching these kids grow and folding them into my arms now and again. And they’re pretty puppy like, so they love being enfolded. How sweet is that?

So they’re off to learn more about who they are and what their tradition is and how they might grow into it. (I reminded them when they left that in our country, our tradition started here, so they come from the source! or maybe they come from the roots and are off to visit the place where the tree grew… also grew! They’ll make a whole bunch of memories. They’ll create family and community for themselves when they’re stuffed into that big ol’ van. Laughing all the way and learning whatever comes. Oh, may they see the possibility. The Flower Moon is compressing, time to make sense of things!

But the kids. The bright, funny, interested, loving kids and the two great parents who are hauling them along. Those kids. They’re more than okay. And I am at Peace with that and more than a little in Love.

Peace, Good Deeds, & a Flower Moon

It’s good to do things for one another. It’s good to gather together as a group and do things for one another. It gathers us into community and makes us feel good that we’re doing important things.

It’s also good when what we’re doing isn’t necessary because there is no healthcare. That makes me so sad. I believe so strongly in healthcare for everyone. Yes. I know it’s expensive. And everyone needs health care.

I don’t mind paying taxes so that our children aren’t the most endangered and the hungriest. In fact, I want that. I want our corporations stepping up and paying their fair share. I want rich people to do the same.

And in the meantime, I want people kicking in the money they have to send people to Key West before they die. It makes us feel good about ourselves. And the person that’s dying gets to have a little slice of life and make one last set of memories with her friends.

That means everything, doesn’t it…

There’s Peacemaking in this… And so we gather under the Flower Moon and watch Love and Friendship blossom between strangers helping one another down the road. It’s a good thing. Creating community is good work. Sometimes it’s hard work. Sometimes it just feels good to do what’s right.

Sweet Festival Flower Moon Peace

The Flower Moon is doing her job. Gardens are just quivering with delight. Trees are loaded. Peepers are peeping. It’s Spring, dadgummit!

It’s cool today, but the sun is shining.

A half a block away from my house two large metal sculptures are for sale. One is an almost full sized elephant head. The other is a saucy dragon. oh yeah.

It’s my party. which the whole town threw just for me, or that’s how I’m looking at it.

In villages all across the Susquehanna Valley, indeed our country, maybe even our world, people are celebrating Spring. They’re strolling in small towns, eating festival foods, greeting their neighbors, hanging out with their friends and having a good old time.

My husband’s playing in the park from 11:30-12:30. Go bang a drum with him.

(I’ll be at the food court, meeting my buds!

And coughing, yes, and coughing. But I just visited my favorite pharmacist, so I can at least mask the symptoms! Because I certainly don’t want to stop the flowers!

Bright wonderful Festival Peace be with you. Happy Birthday to my 3 birthday buddies and blessings to Ro and Arlyne who at long last are getting married! Celebrate! Create Community. and just flat out enjoy!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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